Sexual Violence in Conflict

In West Africa, OHCHR’s Regional Office, together with other UN entities and partners, supported the organization of a round-table of the Ministers of Women’s Affairs of the 16 ECOWAS Member States at the end of which a regional action plan was adopted.

In Colombia, prior to the adoption of the Victim and Land Restitution Law, UN Women provided technical assistance to the government to incorporate a gender perspective and promoted regional consultations with women`s organizations and a public hearing at the National Congress. This law recognizes that women are among the most vulnerable victims and therefore they need to receive special attention in the provision of medical and physiological services, access to education and restitution of their properties.

The OHCHR continued to work closely with the SRSG on Sexual Violence in Conflict (SVC) to support her mandate through the provision of information and support in connection with country visits; support to staff fielded by the SRSG SVC for specific purposes and joint follow-up to SRSG SVC’s visit. OHCHR also provided secretariat support to Commissions of Inquiry created by the Human Rights Council.

OCHA supports the Gender Standby Capacity Project (GenCap), in collaboration with the Inter‐Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), aimed at building the capacity of humanitarian actors at country level to mainstream gender in all sectors of humanitarian response. From June 2007 to April 2011, 54 GenCap Advisers have supported 30 Humanitarian Country Teams. A Gender-Based Violence (GBV) window has been established in the GenCap Roster.

From 13 to 14 September 2011, the Regional Coordination Mechanism Thematic Working Group on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (RCM TWG-GEEW) (co-chaired by ESCAP and UN Women) organised and hosted the Inaugural Meeting of the Regional Advisory Group on Women and Peace and Security, during which the terms of reference were adopted and priority areas for action and support were discussed. The outcome was shared in an open session (“Priorities for Implementing United Nations Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific region”).

The UNAIDS Secretariat provided support for the Security Council debate in June 2011 on Impact of HIV/AIDS on International Peace and Security. The resulting UN Security Council resolution 1983 includes prevention of sexual violence in conflict and post conflict situations.

In Serbia, UNDP supported the development of strategies to address sexual gender-based violence and a draft document on this topic was finalized. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, strategies to address sexual gender-based violence were also developed as a part of the transitional justice strategy, which includes a focus on survivors of sexual gender-based violence from the 1992-95 armed conflict.

UNFPA has developed a draft strategy on gender-based Violence for the Latin America and Caribbean region via a workshop held in Guatemala in September 2010. The sub-regional strategy – with a focus on sexual violence – will aim to provide guidance to UNFPA country offices and partners in the region to develop a comprehensive response to addressing sexual violence.

UNDP-Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR) has recruited an expert to contribute to the Team of Experts who will be in post as of February 2011. The Expert will undertake the technical work and deployments of the Team of Experts, whilst BCPR Rule of Law, Justice and Security team and senior management will continue to be closely engaged with the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Team of Experts Team Leader regarding the overall strategy and direction of the Team.

Former OSAGI, now part of UN Women, led and coordinated the preparation of the annual Report of the Secretary-General on women and peace and security (S/2010/498), which was presented to the Security Council during a Ministerial-level Open Debate (26 October 2010) to mark the tenth anniversary of the adoption of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000). The report included as an annex a set of indicators for use at the global level to track the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).